By answering all of these questions fully, you can help Heritage
provide more record-breaking events in 2006 and beyond. And
remember, one lucky respondent who fully answers this confidential
survey will:

WIN a CERTIFIED BRILLIANT
UNCIRCULATED $20 High Relief!

Your confidential, completed survey must be received at Heritage
by March 3, 2006, to participate in the drawings. Only one entry
per person is eligible to win. Thank you, and good luck!

Our Signature Auction of the
Jules Reiver Collection of US Coinage contiued through January
28, 2006 in our Dallas headquarters. This auction, held with no
reserves, realized over $8.5 million in its nine sessions, with
2,815 total bidders participating, 654 of them successfully, for
4,642 total lots. The On-Line Session, which closed on January 30,
brought in an additional $300,000.

Mr. Reiver's collecting efforts were far reaching, and the
results speak for themselves. We had originally projected this
collection to bring in $7 million, and the results exceeded even
our high expectations. We can think of no finer tribute to this man
and his lifetime contributions to numismatics.

Needless to say, Mr. Reiver's family is thrilled with the
results of the auction. "I guess I never realized the scope of
skills required to profuce a successful auction," said Betsy Reiver
DeMarino, Jules Reiver's daughter. "It's a bit like producing a
successful Broadway play! We do appreciate all your efforts, and I
know I speak for all of us when I say that it's been a great
experience, the memory of which we'll always cherish."

Who was Walter Shirlaw, you
might ask, and what does he have to do with numismatics? An artist,
Shirlaw was born in Paisley, Scotland, August 6, 1838. As a
painter, he is best known for his realist works such as pastorals
and figure painting. His most notable paintings are, "Toning the
Bell" and "Sheep-shearing in the Bavarian Highlands." He was one of
the founding members of The Society of American Artists, and
served as its first president.

However, most people today,
and especially numismatists, may associate him with the work he did
on currency. He worked as an engraver early in his career, and
created what many people deem as one of the true masterpieces to
appear on American Currency: "Electricity Presenting Light to the
World" which is a gorgeous interpretation of Knowledge and Light,
with strong Roman influences, coming to man. This vignette is
featured on the classic
Fr. 268 $5 1896 Silver Certificate, pictured above.

This lot consists of eight letters handwritten by Shirlaw, all
measuring 5" x 8", on one sheet of folded paper. Also included is a
letter written by Shirlaw's wife, and two envelopes one of which is
signed by Shirlaw. All the items are in good condition, with no
major flaws whatsoever. The covers show the most age and have
several tears on them as well as widespread soiling on the edges.
The letters exhibit the expected folds, and have some onset of acid
degradation. Otherwise a fantastic lot of a somewhat obscure but
very talented artist.

This auction is open for bidding right now at
www.HeritageAuctions.com/Americana. The floor auction will take
place on February 20 and 21 in Dallas, with a simulcast in New York
City. Internet bidding will close at 10PM CT the night before the
lot goes to floor auction.

Our customers will often ask us for a complete listing of the
prices realized in our auctions, with the idea that having the
prices handy along with our catalogs makes the catalogs that much
more useful. Our website, HeritageAuctions.com/Coins,
has long provided the ability for you to print your own complete
listing of prices realized for any auction.

To find this listing, go to the Permanent Auction Archives, and
from there find the auction that interests you. Perform any search
on this auction. You will see the results of your search, as usual,
but on the right side of the page, you will also see two links.

The Printable Version of Prices realized for this Auction link
will bring up a page much like the above which contains nothing but
lot numbers and prices realized. This listing is designed to be
printed out and kept with your catalog. If you are interested in
more thorough information, click on Printable Catalog for this
auction. This brings up a complete, printable listing of every lot
in the auction, including both the description and the price the
lot realized.

Of course, Heritage auctions often have several thousand lots,
and printing an entire Printable Catalog may take several hundred
pages. In order to save our forests, we urge you to preview the job
and print only those pages you need!

Altered: A coin that has been treated after leaving the
mint to resemble a more valuable coin. Altering a coin might
involve changing a numeral in the date, adding or removing a
mintmark, or removing another feature of a coin such as the leg on
certain 1937-D nickels.

Arrows (1) Heraldry device used on many US coins. On the
reverse of many coins, the eagle is holding both an olive branch
and arrows -- the olive branch symbolizing peace, and the arrows
symbolizing preparedness.
(2) Device placed on either side of the date of some US silver
coins in 1853 and 1873 in order to signify a change in weight. In
1853, the weight was reduced because of high silver costs, and the
arrows were placed in order to keep the coins from being melted for
bullion. These arrows continued to be placed on the coins until
1855. In 1873, the weight was increased slightly in a move to a
metric standard; however, the change was so small that the newer
coins were within the weight tolerances used for the older ones.
These arrows continued until 1874. Since certain no arrows
varieties of 1853 and 1873 coins are quite scarce or rare, some of
the more common varieties are sometimes altered to remove the
arrows.

As a valued Heritage client, we wanted to let you know about the
special discounts we have negotiated with NumisMedia for you. We
believe you'll find these guides to be an indispensable
coin-pricing resource. Heritage, along with many other numismatic
insiders, consider NumisMedia to be the most accurate rare coin
pricing source available anywhere.

NumisMedia Online Dealer Price Guides - Market, PCGS, and NGC
Prices:Just $120 per year. Order
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NumisMedia presents NGC and PCGS Dealer Wholesale Prices
representing dealer bid prices, and is available to dealers. In
subscribing to the NGC/PCGS Wholesale Prices, you will also have
access to the NumisMedia Market Prices, dealer to dealer trading
prices based on sight-seen trades from activity throughout the
country.

Bonus: In addition, subscribers to the Online Dealer Price
Guides will receive a copy of the Fair Market Value Price Guide
each month and gain access to the Online Fair Market Value Price
Guide. This is an additional $96/year value.

NumisMedia Monthly FMV Price Guide:Just $17 for 3 months. Order
NOW!
The NumisMedia FMV Price Guide is a monthly publication with
concise listings of the most recent Fair Market Value prices for
coins offered by dealers in the numismatic community. The Fair
Market Value prices listed represent accurately graded, sight-seen
coins that are accepted by a majority of the dealers across the
country.

According to Heritage's Music
& Entertainment expert, Doug Norwine, "This instrument is
unusual in a couple of ways. First, it is the only known example of
a Mark V style Mosrite Gospel model. While Kurt owned and smashed
many cheaper (usually Univox) copies of Mosrite guitars during his
career, this was one of only two actual Mosrites he owned. (The
other was damaged and given away.) It was also one of his favorite
guitars, which saved it from the usual fate of the instruments he
used for live performances."

Cobain purchased the guitar in San Francisco in 1990.

According to guitar-maker Earnie Bailey, 'Kurt had only one
Gospel, and this is a beyond rare guitar. At the time Kurt died, I
was secretly working with Loretta Mosley to build Kurt a lefty
Gospel... in some cool color.'

Unfortunately, Kurt passed away as Earnie was gathering photos
to send to Mosrite of Kurt's original. 'Loretta sent me a nice
letter after it ended, as she had recently lost Semie (husband,
founder of Mosrite) and was now running Mosrite on her own... she
had sent me some sales literature of another Gospel, but could find
no history of ever having made one based on the Mark V guitar.'
(Quote reprinted from www.kurtsequipment.com.)

Cobain had painted the very
small Mosrite dot markers with white-out to make them more visible
in a live setting. Although the previous owner removed this simple
modification, residue is still visible on the instrument. This is a
factory right handed instrument, so it was modified for Kurt with a
strap button added to the treble side horn, and the original metal
string guide has been flipped to allow it to be strung left handed.
The original case bears the words 'NIRVANA' and 'F... Elvis'
(colorful expletive deleted here but preserved on the case) in
white paint which, while painted over with the same white paint,
are still visible on inspection. This lot also includes a
hand-written letter from Chris Cobb, owner of Real Guitars in San
Francisco, who sold Cobain the guitar in the fall of 1990.

In a move to help strengthen the coin hobby and increase
membership in America's coin clubs, Heritage has created the Coin
Club Outreach program.

The Coin Club Outreach program features a speaker's bureau to
deliver presentations at coin club meetings, promotional items to
be offered to clubs to help generate revenue and enlist new
members, and access to the Heritage website and mailing list of
over 150,000 active coin and currency enthusiasts. Anyone
interested in scheduling a speaker for a coin club or other
collector group is invited to contact:

Answer these quick questions and see how you stack up against your
peers.

1. In the Overton cataloging system used for Bust Half Dollars,
what would be the relationship between a coin cataloged as O-101
and a coin cataloged as O-101a?
O-101a is an overdate created from the die
used for O-101
O-101a is a later die state than O-101
O-101a is a later discovery, inserted between
O-101 and O-102 in chronological order
O-101a has a different reverse
There is no predictable relationship

2. One 1870-S $3 gold piece is known today. Where is it?
At ANA Headquarters in Colorado Springs
Awaiting sale in a future Heritage
auction
In the British Museum
In the cornerstone of the old US Mint
building in San Francisco
In the Smithsonian Institution

Heritage delivers for you all of the advantages needed to
achieve top market prices in our 34th Official ANA Auction...

The hottest rare coin market ever

A numismatic venue of tradition — Atlanta

The incredible demand of motivated ANA visitors

Demand from 220,000+ registered bidder-members on our
website

Our exclusive Permanent Auction Archives enshrine your
collection

Marketing your consignment to the world

Our exclusive Interactive Internet bidding systems to maximize
prices

Award-winning catalogers and the best images on the web or in
print

The most experienced ANA auctioneer

Only Heritage, the world's numismatic auction leader, delivers
all of these advantages, making this a truly exceptional selling
opportunity. This was the same decision made by the consignor of
the magnificent Duke's Creek Collection of Dahlonega Gold. Great
anchor collections like this ensure that the attention of the
numismatic world will be focused on Atlanta and on your coins.

I continue to be impressed with the prices
realized from the several auctions that have now closed. I am also
impressed with all of your and your colleagues' efforts regarding
the listings of my wife's numismatic material. I plan to write a
letter to Steve Ivy regarding what is panning out to be a very
postive experience once all the auctions have been cleared, and
I'll continue to keep the owner of the other (better) half of the
collection informed in case he should decide to sell.

I was particularly impressed with the prices
realized for the foreign coins in the 2006 January New York
Signature Auction.